PDF of Kittson Article

wwmto-m RSN ■ TY UN CO RAMSEY PRESENT Volume 6 Volume Number 2 Number GI L A IN IG R O OU TY UN CO RAMSEY ( 1849 ILLE M AKE LA AC LA ) Ramsey County History

Published by the RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Editor: Virginia Brainard Kunz

Fall 100 Years Ago at the University Page 3

1969 The Letters of Samuel Pond, Jr. Page 8

Volume 6 Kellogg Boulevard: The Story of Old Third Street Page 14 Number 2 Forgotten Pioneers . . . VIII Page 16

Norman Kittson and the Fur Trade Page 18

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY is published semi­ ON THE COVER: Samuel Pond’s old mill at Shakopee. annually and copyrighted, 1969, by the Ramsey County After years o f service to the Dakota Indians in Minne­ Historical Society, 2097 Larpenteur Avenue West, St. sota, the pioneer missionary was living here in 1869 Paul, Minnesota. Membership in the Society carries when his son, Samuel Pond, Jr., a student at the with it a subscription to Ramsey County History. Single University o f Minnesota, wrote the letters used in this issues sell for $1.00. Correspondence concerning con­ issue. Gideon Pond lived across the Minnesota River tributions should be addressed to the editor. The Society in what is now Bloomington. assumes no responsibility for statements made by con­ tributors. Manuscripts and other editorial material are welcomed but, since the Society is an eleemosynary ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Unless otherwise indicated, institution, no payment can be made for contributions. pictures in this issue are from the audio-visual library All articles and other editorial material submitted will of the Minnesota Historical Society. The editor is in­ be carefully read and published, if accepted , as space debted to Eugene Becker and Dorothy Gimmestad for permits. their help.

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Norman Kittson and the Fur Trade

Historians have called Norman Wolfred Kittson one of the most significant men in Minnesota history. Yet, he is largely forgotten today. Even during his own lifetime, he was overshadowed by such giants as his good friends and business partners, James J. Hill and Henry Hastings Sibley. The following story about this remarkable Minnesota pioneer is based upon two basic sources; a fascinating article by Dr. Clarence W. Rife, professor emeritus of history at Hamline University, St. Paul, and now a member of the Ramsey County Historical Society’s Editorial Committee, and an unpublished manuscript by Holly Walters, a Macalester College student, who wrote it in 1968 as part of her interim project. Dr. Rife’s article appeared originally in the September, 1925, issue o/Minnesota History, the quarterly magazine published by the Minnesota Historical Society. As a student, Miss Walters wisely drew heavily upon the work of Dr. Rife, an established historian of stature, but both writers, of course, used primary and sec­ ondary sources.

ORMAN Wolfred Kittson was born in Sibley was just three years older than Kitt­ N Chambly, a military center near Sorel, son and the two men formed a friendship Lower Canada, on March 5,1814, a descend­ and a business association which was to last ant of a family which played an active part in throughout the rest of their lives. Sibley the history of what is now Canada. His grand­ signed on Kittson and for the next few years, father had served under Wolfe at Quebec Kittson represented the company at a number and, after his death, his grandmother married of posts in the territory which now is Wis­ the great explorer, Alexander Henry. consin, Iowa and Minnesota.1 Kittson’s parents were George and Nancy Tucker Kittson, but his uncle, William Mor­ rison, a retired fur trader, exerted a powerful influence in his young life — so much so, apparently, that in 1830 at the age of 16, Norman Kittson and his brother, John, joined t y the American Fur Company as three-year apprentices and headed west with a group of voyageurs. Mackinac Island, which lies in the straits between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, was then the great center of America’s fur trade in the North. There Norman Kittson met Henry Hastings Sibley who was stationed at Mackinac as upper clerk for the American Fur Company. Wm m The sketch at the top of the page is of the fur trading post at Pembina which Norman W. Kittson, right, maintained as his base of opera­ tions for more than 10 years.

18 IN 1834, Kittson completed his term of Around the angles of the yard are various service. For the next four years, he was a warehouses, an icehouse, blacksmith-shop, sutler’s clerk at Fort Snelling, and between and the trading-house, or store, which is 1839 and 1843, he was a fur-trader around covered completely over with large squares Fort Snelling. Sibley, meanwhile, had moved of bark, and looked like an entire bark- to what is now Mendota as chief agent for house. In front, toward the river, are barns the American Fur Company. That year, and stables, haystacks, etc., with numerous following company custom, he admitted horses and cattle feeding, and a general Kittson as a special partner, allotting him appearance of thrift, comfort, and industry, territory that included the valleys of the pervades the scene.” Minnesota River and the Red River of the Although Kittson’s plan was to stop British North, to the point where the river entered encroachment on the fur trade south of the British possessions. international boundary, it must be admitted The agreement, which became operative that he also had in mind luring traders trap­ July 1, 1843, established the partnership as ping on British soil into crossing the border “Kittson’s Outfit” and placed Kittson in full and depositing their peltries at his posts. charge, with Sibley supplying the trade goods This, of course, was not lost upon the at a 10 per cent advance on cost.2 Head­ Hudson’s Bay Company, but there was quarters were at Big Stone Lake. another factor of which Kittson apparently Later that year, Kittson journeyed down was unaware. A long-standing secret agree­ the Red River to Pembina, a small settle­ ment existed between the Hudson’s Bay ment just south of the international bound­ Company and the American Fur Company ary. He had realized that the fur trade frontier whereby the American company, in return was receding northward, and he found the for an annual subsidy of 300 pounds, ceased Pembina area rich in valuable furs: mink, to compete with the British company along otter, beaver, fisher, martin, muskrat and the international border. Further, both com­ fox. However, the Hudson’s Bay Company panies agreed to work together to crush each year drew large amounts of furs from independent traders who entered the area. the American side of the boundary. Kittson planned to stop the company’s siphoning off of trade from United States territory by IN EFFECT, Kittson was in the unenviable establishing a post at Pembina.3 position of competing with his own employ­ He gave up his southern posts — Sibley ers and his company was faced with having transferred them to other partners — and to trample upon one of its own. built a string of posts which eventually If Sibley, Kittson’s partner, knew of the extended from the Mouse (or Souris) River arrangement, he seems to have regarded it and Turtle Mountain posts on the west as not binding upon Kittson, who was, at (which supplied him with buffalo robes and least, a semi-independent trader.4 However, pemmican) to the Red Lake, Rush Lake, trade war continued to wage. Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods posts Kittson had other problems, one of the to the east. The Lake of the Woods post most formidable of which was how to trans­ was of particular importance because the port his furs to Mendota and, later, St. Paul. Indians met there annually to fish. He adopted for his purposes the carts which were in wide use among the Indians in the His Pembina headquarters were described Pembina area for buffalo hunts, and thus in 1851 by J. Wesley Bond in his book, Min­ the famed Red River ox cart became asso­ nesota and Its Resources: ciated with Kittson’s name and was used by other traders.5 These were strange vehicles. They were “THE HOUSES are built around an open made entirely of wood with leather fasten­ space and the square courtyard (so to speak) ings and they had two wheels fixed on wooden is filled with a miscellaneous crowd of half- axles devoid of oil or grease. When in motion, breeds, Indians, of all sizes with their lodges a caravan could be heard for miles.6 Each of bark and skins, together with horses, cart was drawn by an ox. cattle, carts, dogs, etc., in great variety and numbers. The houses are built of logs, filled with mud and straw; the roofs thatched with THERE IS the story of the St. Anthony the latter, and some covered over with bark. preacher who, one Sunday morning, had just

19 The last train of Red River carts threaded its way down Summit Avenue, St. Paul, in 1869.9 Throughout the late 1840’s and the early 1850’s, competition with the Hudson’s Bay Company intensified. In 1846, a man named Fisher, a Hudson’s Bay man, set up a trading post just a few hundred yards from Kittson’s front door. Kittson suspected, and rightly, m HB that the man’s license to operate in Ameri­ Ox carts and their drivers in St. Paul. The can territory was fraudulent and he appealed carts, used first by the Indians, were adopted by Kittson. to the government in Washington. But Pem­ bina was far away, the government had more pressing concerns than rivalries along the announced his text when the squealing of international border, and nothing was done. an approaching train of Red River carts was For their part, the British felt that Kittson heard. The trail ran near the church and the had been trapping in their territory. The minister, knowing it would take some time Hudson’s Bay Company brought suit. There for the train, with its slow, plodding oxen, is no record of the disposition of the case, to pass, announced: “The sermon will be but eventually a business relationship was delivered next Sunday,” and hastily dis­ worked out which did not diminish, however, missed the congregation.7 (Kittson, however, the raging trade war over peltries.10 used a western trail which ended at Traverse By 1850, Kittson had four clerks, including des Sioux where the cargo was transferred a capable assistant, Joe Rolette, Jr.; 10 to river boats.) voyageurs and a capital of $12,000. To The oxen were fastened to the carts with attempt to increase trade, he provided his thongs of buffalo hide. One driver guided hunters and trappers with trade goods so several carts simply by guiding the head ox; that they could “play at trading.” He also the heads of the oxen pulling the following hoped this would build the good relation­ carts were tied to each preceding cart. ships he would need when the major trading The carts cost about $15 and carried from season began.11 600 to 700 pounds. They could travel no Kittson, however, also was sincerely con­ more than 15 miles a day, which meant that cerned with the problems of the Indians and they covered the route from Pembina to St. he has left vivid descriptions of their plight. Paul in 30 to 40 days. Each cart usually would last through three trips. “THE POOR DEVILS are so badly pro­ While the carts were interesting, and cer­ vided that it is wonderful how it is possible tainly functional, their drivers were fascin­ for them to kill anything; they have not a atingly flamboyant. Most of them were part single trap, most of them [are] without am­ Indian and part white. They were called munition; and probably one out of 20 may “bois brules,” and they wore a costume that have an axe; and thus they have to spend the has been described as a strange mingling of winter, their sole dependence being fish for “civilized garments and barbaric adornments. their subsistence.” 12 They were usually clad in coarse blue cloth The Indians also were being exploited by with a profusion of brass buttons and a red illicit traders, many of whom dealt in liquor. sash girt about their waists. They presented On September 11, 1851, Governor Ramsey, also a curious mingling of races, the old appointed by the federal government to Scotch, English and French settlers having negotiate one of several treaties with the married with the Crees and Chippewas and Indians, arrived at Kittson’s house in Pem­ crossed and recrossed until every shade of bina, accompanied by an escort of dragoons. complexion was to be seen and a babel of On September 20, a treaty was signed which tongues was the result.” 8 would have eased many of the problems; the Senate, however, refused to ratify it. IN 1850, 102 carts carried $15,000 worth In a letter to Sibley dated September 23, of furs to St. Paul and returned with $10,000 Kittson expressed his disappointment: worth of supplies. By 1857, there were 500 “It has been to me a scourse [sic] of great ox carts in the service of various traders. annoyance, situated as I am between so many

20 conflicting interests; petty and worthless James M. Goodhue, St. Paul’s pioneer ambitions to allay, ignorant and unprincipled newspaper editor, wrote that, “Kittson’s is characters to contend with and above all, laid off in smaller lots than any of the other the defeat of long and many expectations.”13 additions, and its streets make no sort of Kittson’s helping of the Indians, and the coincidence with other streets in town.”16 ever-present struggle with the Hudson’s Bay In 1858, Kittson, the Democratic Party’s Company finally proved too great a strain nominee, was elected mayor of St. Paul. He on “Kittson’s Outfit.” In 1852 Sibley re­ was not a newcomer to politics. He had ported that Kittson made only $10,000 on a served, rather reluctantly though elected by capital of $25,000; in 1853, Joe Rolette took a 33-32 vote, in Minnesota’s Territorial Leg­ over the business, though Kittson kept his islature from 1852-1855. Kittson and the financial interest in it for several years.14 other representatives, Joe Rolette and He had other enterprises, and it was these Antoine Gingras, usually traveled to the which provided the basis for his future for­ sessions by dogsled, but on more than one tune. In 1851, he had established a firm, occasion they were forced to strap on snow- the “St. Paul Outfit,” with William H. Forbes. shoes and walk 500 miles to St. Paul. By Located at Third and Robert Streets, the 1855, Kittson had moved to St. Paul.17 company specialized in supplying Red River Since Kittson possessed invaluable know­ carts which were heading north.15 ledge of northern Minnesota and the fur trade, it was not long before the Hudson’s Bay Company was attempting to add his BEFORE GOING to Pembina in 1843, name to its payrolls. Eventually, he was Kittson had purchased the old Clewett claim, appointed general purchasing and forward­ later called Kittson’s addition, and by 1848 ing agent in St. Paul. he had increased his real estate holdings to include part of what is now St. Paul’s down­ town area. The tract extended from the THE COMPANY continually sought more Mississippi River north to Twelfth Street, rapid and economical modes of transporta­ and from Neill Street on the east to Market tion. With the advent of the inland steamboat, Street. the firm hired a line of steamers from the Burbank Stage Company. Kittson was put in charge of the line, and thus came to be This is the mansion Kittson built in 1882. It known as “Commodore.” It was in this stood on the present site of the Cathedral capacity that, in 1860, he first met James J. of St. Paul. Hill, who also realized the value of the steam­ boat in transportation.18 Hill built the “Sel­ kirk” to challenge Kittson’s line. However, the men soon realized that there was not enough business for two lines. In 1864, Kitt­ son bought out the Burbank Company and he and Hill formed the Red River Trans­ portation Company.19 Some 10 years later, Donald Smith, the Canadian governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, asked Kittson for information on the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Smith had heard the line was in financial difficulty and hoped to buy it out to form a line from St. Paul to Manitoba. Kittson knew little about railroading and referred Smith to his partner, James J. Hill, who found that the line was, indeed, going bankrupt. Four men, Kittson, Hill, Smith and George Stephens, a Cana­ dian financier and railroad magnate, formed a partnership and waited for the opportune moment. Soon,theN orthern Pacific R ailroad bought out both the St. Paul and Pacific and the

21 Kittson’s business career eclipsed his personal life. He is known to have had two Indian or half-breed wives before marrying Mary A. Kittson, who was from Fort Gary. Some sources, however, refer to four wives. In his will he mentions eleven children, five of whom were by Mary Kittson, but, accord­ ing to a genealogical chart made by a grand­ son, he actually fathered twenty-six children. Kittson died May 11, 1888, somewhere between Chicago and St. Paul. It seems appropriate, somehow, that a man so con­ cerned with transportation should come to the end of his life in a railroad car. He was described as he was in his fifties by T. M. Newson, in Pen Picture's of St. Paul, as a “sprightly, fine-looking man; cleanly and really elegantly dressed; hair just turning gray; eyes bright, with a quiet, The stables owned by Norman Kittson stood pleasant voice; genial in nature and a man at about where Snelling and University of excellent characteristics.” Avenues are now. The stables were built in the form of a Greek cross, 248 by 180 feet. The $60,000 building had 64 box stalls. Footnotes 1. Clarence W. Rife, “Norman W. Kittson,” Minne­ First Division lines, but floundered, and the sota History, St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, four partners seized control. The outgrowth September, 1925, Volume 6, Number 3, Page 226. 2. Ibid., Page 227. of this transaction, first called the St. Paul, 3. Ibid., Page 228. Minneapolis and Manitoba Company, was 4. Ibid., Page 233. the Great Northern Railway, a line with 5. J. A. A. Burnquist, Minnesota and Its People, 8,275 miles of track and nearly 16,000 Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1924, employees.20 Volume I, Page 529. 6. Henry A. Castle, Minnesota, Its Story and Biog­ By 11882, Kittson had constructed the raphy, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, Globe office building, the Astoria Hotel, a 1915, Volume 1, Page 430. $40,000 addition to the Clarendon Hotel and 7. J. A. A. Burnquist, op. cit. a huge mansion on the site of the present 8. Henry A. Castle, op. cit. St. Paul Cathedral. 9. Minnesota — A State Guide, Federal Writer’s Project of the WJP.A., New York: Hastings House, However, his pride and joy was Kittsondale, 1938, Page 336. a million-dollar stable and racetrack located 10. Clarence W. Rife, op. cit., Page 235. in the Midway area of St. Paul, at what is 11. Ibid., Page 230. today Snelling and University Avenues. He 12. Ibid., Page 239. 13. Ibid., Page 244. also owned Erdheim, a world-famous horse 14. William Watts Folwell, A History of Minnesota, farm outside of Philadelphia. Iroquoise, the St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1922, Vol­ first American horse to win the British ume 1, Page 164. Derby, was raised and trained at Erdheim. 15. Warren Upham, Minnesota in Three Centuries, The Publishing Society of Minnesota, 1908, Volume This stable, though no longer in Kittson’s IV, Page 311. family, is still in existence. 16. J. Fletcher Williams, A History of the City of St. Most of the buildings and firms associated Paul and of the County of Ramsey, St. Paul: The with Kittson have disappeared, but his name Minnesota Historical Society, 1876, Page 330. became a lasting part of Minnesota’s geo­ 17. Edward D. Neill, History of the Minnesota Valley, St. Paul: The North Star Publishing Company, graphy when, in 1878, Kittson County in the 1882, Page 272. northwestern corner of the state was named 18. WilliamWattsFolwell.op. cit., Volume III, Page452. for him. (Many people believe that Norman 19. Theodore C. Blegen, Minnesota, A History of the county also was named for him but, accord­ State, Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1963, Page 300. ing to county records, it was named for the 20. Ibid., Page 301. Scandinavians or “Nor(s)men” who had 21. Minnesota Historical Society Collections, St. Paul: settled the area.) 21 Minnesota Historical Society, 1920, Volume 17.

22 THE GIBBS HOUSE Headquarters of the Ramsey County Histor­ ical Society, 2097 Larpenteur A venue West, St. Paul, Minnesota.

HE Ramsey County Historical Society was founded in 1949. T During the following years the Society, believing that a sense of history is of great importance in giving a new, mobile generation a knowledge of its roots in the past, acquired the 100-year-old farm home which had belonged to Heman R. Gibbs. The Society restored the Gibbs House and in 1954 opened it to the public as a museum which would depict the way of life of an early Minnesota settler. In 1958, the Society erected a barn behind the farm house which is maintained as an agricultural museum to display the tools and other implements used by the men who broke up the prairie soil and farmed with horse and oxen. In 1966, the Society moved to its museum property a one-room rural schoolhouse, dating from the 1870's. The white frame school came from near Milan, Minne­ sota. Now restored to the period of the late 1890’s, the school actually is used for classes and meetings. In the basement beneath the school building, the Society has its office, library and collec­ tions. In 1968, the Society acquired from the University of Min­ nesota the use of the white barn adjoining the Society's property. Here is housed a collection of carriages and sleighs which once belonged to James J. Hill. Today, in addition to maintaining the Gibbs property, the Ramsey County Historical Society is active in the preservation of historic sites in Ramsey county, conducts tours, prepares pamphlets and other publications, organizes demonstrations of pioneer crafts and maintains a Speakers' Bureau for schools and organizations. It is the Society's hope that through its work the rich heritage of the sturdy men and women who were the pioneers of Ramsey County will be preserved for future generations.